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Illegal Immigrants flooding through Canada into the US include known suspected terrorists

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A Border Patrol agent standing watch at the Montana-Canada border in the CBP Spokane Sector.

From The Center Square

Illegal border crossings at northern border continue to break records

May totals highest for the month in US history

Illegal border crossings at the northern border continue to break records, according to the latest data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A record-breaking 18,644, were apprehended illegally entering the U.S. at the northern border in May, the highest total for the month of May in recorded history.

The northern border has seen the highest number of illegal entries in U.S. history under the Biden administration, The Center Square has reported.

In the first eight months of fiscal 2024, more than 99,000 were apprehended after illegally entering through the northern border, according to CBP data. If the current trajectory continues, the numbers are on track to surpass fiscal 2023 apprehensions of 147,666.

Those numbers are up from 92,737 apprehensions in fiscal 2022 and 24,895 in fiscal 2021.

CBP’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The data excluded ā€œgotaways,ā€ the official term used by CBP to describe foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry and don’t return to Mexico or Canada. CBP does not publicly report this data. The Center Square first began obtaining it from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity to provide a more accurate picture of monthly apprehension data.

The busiest sector at the northern border is the Swanton Sector, which includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties and three New Hampshire counties.

The sector spans 295 miles of international boundary with the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and is the first international land boundary east of the Great Lakes.

In fiscal 2023, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents broke previous records by apprehending the greatest number of illegal border crossers in history of more than 6,700 foreign nationals from 76 countries, The Center Square exclusively reported.

They continue to break records.

ā€œIn less than 9 months, Swanton Sector Border Patrol Agents have apprehended more than 10,000 subjects from 83 countries,ā€ Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said. The total so far this fiscal year, as of June 10, was more than the sector’s entire record-setting fiscal 2023 year, he said. ā€œWe continue to see an unprecedented increase of illegal entries across eastern New York and Vermont.ā€

This is after northern border apprehensions reached their highest level in U.S. history in the first six months of fiscal 2024, with Swanton Sector agents apprehending in one week more than they did in fiscal 2021, The Center Square reported.

Border Patrol agents at the northern border are also apprehending the greatest number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs), according to CBP data. In the first six months of fiscal 2024, they apprehended 143 KSTs, The Center Square reported, including an Iranian with terrorist ties.

That number is now up to 199, according to CBP data as of June 20. By comparison, 117 KSTs were apprehended at the southwest border over the same time period.

The U.S.-Canada border is the longest international border in the world of 5,525 miles. Unlike the U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls or similar barriers separating the U.S. from Canada and most of the northern border is unmanned and unpatrolled.

Numerous reports indicate that lack of operational control at the northern border poses a serious national security threat, The Center Square first reported.

ā€œThe northern border is under-resourced by far compared to the southwest border,ā€ former Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. ā€œBut at the same time, it still represents significant threats. Cartels are expanding their operations, flying people into Canada, which doesn’t require a visa, presenting an opportunity for terrorist watch-listed individuals to exploit. It’s much easier to get to Canada to come across.ā€

The Swanton Sector is currently hiring, Garcia says, offering up to $30,000 in incentives for new recruits, up from $20,000 hiring incentives offered in February.

Garcia also emphasizes how the local community plays a vital role supporting Border Patrol efforts. ā€œAgents rely on the vigilance of our community,ā€ he said. ā€œSwanton Sector received more than 1,000 suspicious activity reports in 2023 and we are grateful for every call. We cannot effectively do our job without assistance from the public.ā€

As record numbers continue to pour through the northern border, he’s appealing to the public, saying, ā€œWe need your help now more than ever. YOUR call matters! 1-800-689-3362.ā€

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Daily Caller

DOJ Releases Dossier Of Deported Maryland Man’s Alleged MS-13 Gang Ties

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From theĀ Daily Caller News Foundation

By Katelynn Richardson

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released documents Wednesday demonstrating Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s membership in the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia’s police interview, immigration court rulings and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deportable/inadmissible alien record highlighting his membership in the gang, which he has disputed in court, areĀ includedĀ in the release.

In a December 2019 decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Abrego Garcia’s challenge to an immigration judge’s factual finding that he is ā€œa verified member of MS-13.ā€

The board found the immigration judge ā€œappropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to property or persons.ā€

Officers found Abrego Garcia loitering in a Home Depot parking lot on March 28, 2019, wearing ā€œa Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,ā€ the initial Prince George’s County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet states.

ā€œWearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13,ā€ the document states. ā€œOfficers contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando ABREGO-GARCIA is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique. The confidential source further advised that he is the rank of ā€˜Chequeo’ with the moniker of ā€˜Chele.’ā€

The administration became embroiled in a legal dispute after Abrego Garcia, who entered the country illegally in 2011, was deported in March to El Salvador as a result of an error. In court records, they argued Abrego Garcia could not ā€œrelitigate the finding that he is a danger to the community.ā€

A lower court ordered his return, but the Supreme CourtĀ requiredĀ it to clarify the order and directed the administration to ā€œfacilitateā€ Abrego Garcia’s release.

The Department of Justice (DOJ)Ā indicatedĀ Wednesday that it would appeal the amendedĀ orderĀ Judge Paula Xinis issued which directed the government to ā€œtake all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.ā€

During a Monday meeting with President Donald Trump, El Salvadoran President Nayib BukeleĀ saidĀ he would not ā€œsmuggleā€ a terrorist into the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alsoĀ releasedĀ court filings Wednesday showingĀ Abrego Garcia’s wife requested a domestic violence restraining order against him.

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Despite court rulings, the Trump Administration shows no interest in helping Abrego Garcia return to the U.S.

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Racket News - YouTubeĀ  Greg Collard's avatar By Greg Collard

With research assistance fromĀ James Rushmore

Timeline: The Case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

With President Trump sitting next to him, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that no, he is not going to release Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from his country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite a Justice Department lawyer admitting in a court filing that Abrego Garcia’s deportation last month was an ā€œadministrative error.ā€

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No matter, Bukele said when asked if would return him to the U.S.:

Bukele:Ā Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States. I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.

Reporter:Ā But you could release him inside El Salvador.

Bukele:Ā Yeah, but I’m not releasing, I mean I’m not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western hemisphere, and you want us to go back into releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That’s not going to happen.

Not that there was any doubt what Bukele would say. Attorney General Pam Bondi set the tone early on in the meeting. She explained what the Supreme Court meant last week when it said a lower court ruling ā€œproperly requires the government to ā€˜facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.ā€

The Supreme Court ruled, president, that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.

It brings to mind President Clinton’sĀ infamous grand jury testimonyĀ when he said: ā€œIt depends upon what the meaning of the word ā€˜is’ is.ā€

Abrego-Garcia left El Salvador and illegally entered the U.S. in 2011. His status as an illegal immigrant changed after he was arrested in 2019 and the Department of Homeland Security accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia fought the accusation and applied for asylum. Instead, an immigration judge granted him ā€œwithholding of removalā€ status.

A federal judge wrote in an April 6 opinion that in El Salvador ā€œthe Barrio 18 gang had been targeting him and threatening him with death because of his family’s pupusa business.ā€

The Justice Department argues its hands are tied. It doesn’t matter that the U.S. is paying El SalvadorĀ $6 million a yearĀ to house U.S. deportees at CECOT.

ā€œThe United States does not have control over Abrego Garcia. Or the sovereign nation of El Salvador,ā€ says one court filing.

Below is a timeline of the case since Abrego Garcia was arrested last month, leading up to Monday’s Oval Office meeting with Bukele.

March 12-15, 2025

ICE agents stop Abrego Garcia and tell him that he is no longer under ā€œwithholding of removalā€ status. The Trump administration says he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which the president has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Abrego Garcia, who denies he is part of MS-13, is sent to an ICE detention facility in La Villa, Texas, and from thereĀ he is deportedĀ to El Salvador on March 15 along with 260 others, primarily Venezuelan nationals. He is being held in CECOT, a prison that has a capacity of 40,000 inmates.

March 24, 2025

Abrego Garcia and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, file a lawsuit that notes Abrego Garcia has been in the U.S. legally since 2019 under withholding of removal status, and that the designation was never lifted.

They also accuse the government of sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite ā€œknowing that he would be immediately incarcerated and tortured in that country’s most notorious prison; indeed, Defendants haveĀ paid the government of El Salvador millions of dollars to do exactly that. Such conduct shocks the conscience and cries out for immediate judicial relief.ā€

The lawsuit requests the court order the U.S. government to tell the government of El Salvador to release and deliver Abrego Garcia to the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.

March 31, 2025

The Justice DepartmentĀ acknowledgesĀ in a court filing that ā€œalthough ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.ā€

Still, the Justice Department argues the motion should be denied because the court ā€œhas no powerā€ over El Salvador. Justice Department attorneys argue:

Under their (plaintiffs) logic, this Court may assume jurisdiction to decide whether the order is legal, but if the order were determined legal, then jurisdiction would disappear again.

The government also says there’s no proof that Abrego Garcia will be tortured or killed in CECOT:

Plaintiffs point to little evidence about conditions in CECOT itself (focusing primarily on its capacity for detainees), instead extrapolating from allegations about conditions in different Salvadoran prisons. While there may be allegations of abuses in other Salvadoran prisons—very few in relation to the large number of detainees—there is no clear showing that Abrego Garcia himself is likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT. More fundamentally, this Court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador.

April 4, 2025

U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis orders the Trump Administration to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m., April 7. She writes:

Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits because Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador In violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act…and without any legal process; his continued presence in El Salvador, for obvious reasons, constitutes irreparable harm; the balance of equities and the public interest weigh in favor of returning him to the United States; and issuance of a preliminary injunction without further delay is necessary to restore him to the status quo and to avoid ongoing irreparable harm resulting from Abrego Garcia’s unlawful removal.

April 5, 2025

The Justice Department appeals the order, calling it ā€œindefensibleā€ that ā€œa federal district judge ordered the United States to force El Salvador to send one of its citizens—a member of MS-13, no less—back to the United States by midnight on Monday. If there was ever a case for an emergency stay pending appeal, this would be it.ā€

More from the appellate motion:

Foremost, [the order] commands Defendants to do something they have no independent authority to do: Make El Salvador release Abrego Garcia, and send him to America. That is why Plaintiffs did not even ask the district court for an order directing Abrego Garcia’s return. As Plaintiffs themselves acknowledged, a federal court ā€œhas no jurisdiction over the Government of El Salvador and cannot force that sovereign nation to release Plaintiff Abrego Garcia from its prison.ā€ That concession is all that is needed to order a stay here. No federal court has the power to command the Executive to engage in a certain act of foreign relations; that is the exclusive prerogative of Article II, immune from superintendence by Article III.

April 6, 2025

Judge XinisĀ issues a follow-up memorandum opinion to her April 4 order:

Although the legal basis for the mass removal of hundreds of individuals to El Salvador remains disturbingly unclear, Abrego Garcia’s case is categorically different—there were no legal grounds whatsoever for his arrest, detention, or removal. Nor does any evidence suggest that Abrego Garcia is being held in CECOT at the behest of Salvadoran authorities to answer for crimes in that country. Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless.

The judge also writes that in 2019, Homeland Security ā€œrelied principally on a singular unsubstantiated allegation that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.ā€

April 7, 2025

A three-judge panel of Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously denies the government’s motion for a stay of Xinis’ order that say Abrego Garcia must be returned to the U.S. by 11:59 p.m. Judge Stephanie Thacker writes:

The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process. The Government’s contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable.

The Trump Administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Chief Justice John Roberts grants an administrative stay to give justices time to consider the case.

Following the stay, Bondi accuses Abrego Garcia of being a ā€œviolent gang memberā€:

We will continue to fight for the safety of Americans and get these people out of our country to make America safe.

April 10, 2025

The Supreme Court rules against the Trump administration but directs Judge Xinis to ā€œclarifyā€ a portion of her ruling. From the Supreme Court’s decision:

The order properly requires the Government to ā€œfacilitateā€ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term ā€œeffectuateā€ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.

April 11, 2025

If the Supreme Court said, ā€˜Bring somebody back,’ I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court.

President TrumpĀ says that aboard Air Force OneĀ a day after the Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling and says the government should ā€œfacilitateā€ Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Judge XinisĀ issues a new orderĀ that directs the government to ā€œtake all available steps to facilitate the returnā€ of Abrego Garcia. In a hearing, she alsoĀ makes clear her frustrationĀ with the Justice Department.

ā€œThe record, as it stands, is, despite this court’s clear directive, your clients have done nothing to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia,ā€ she says.

Xinis also orders the administration to provideĀ daily updatesĀ on the status of Abrego Garcia’s return. She also criticizes Justice Department attorneys in her order:

During the hearing, the Court posed straightforward questions, including: Where is Abrego Garcia right now? What steps had Defendants taken to facilitate his return while the Court’s initial order on injunctive relief was in effect…? Defendants’ counsel responded that he could not answer these questions, and at times suggested that Defendants had withheld such information from him. As a result, counsel could not confirm, and thus did not advance any evidence, that Defendants had done anything to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. This remained Defendants’ position even after this Court reminded them that the Supreme Court of the United States expressly affirmed this Court’s authority to require the Government ā€œfacilitateā€ Abrego Garcia’s return. From this Court’s perspective, Defendants’ contention that they could not answer these basic questions absent some nonspecific ā€œvettingā€ that has yet to take place, provides no basis for their lack of compliance.

April 12, 2025

A State Department officialĀ reports to the courtĀ that Abrego Garcia is ā€œalive and secureā€ at CECOT. ā€œHe is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,ā€ the State Department’s Michael Kozak says in a filing.

However, he does not give an update on the status of Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

 

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